


Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely

by Nefertiti1052 (Succubusphan), ShippingFangirl26



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff and Crack, Friends to Lovers, M/M, There was more than one bed, bed sharing, forced to not share a bed, the funny kind of crack not the disgusting kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 12:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15485700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Succubusphan/pseuds/Nefertiti1052, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShippingFangirl26/pseuds/ShippingFangirl26
Summary: Dan and Phil just want to enjoy each other without their co-workers meddling.





	Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the subverted tropes fic fest hosted by the Phandomficfests on tumblr. Thanks to the lovely Shippingfangirl26 for collabing again with me! you are the sweetest!

Honestly, Harry had been the cause of Dan’s miserable 2017. His pretentious attitude, the way he had dragged Dan to dinner parties with his uni friends. He had the habit of showing Dan off whilst simultaneously putting him down for expressing his opinions, often interrupting him and telling him he sounded silly.

 

Dan sometimes wondered what had gotten over him when he had decided to date the freaking philosophy professor, Mr. “I have a masters degree and you don’t”. He was beautiful and charming at the start of their relationship, but soon Dan realized he felt better about himself when he was single. Harry hadn’t taken it well, of course, not because he cared, but because he didn’t like the fact that someone he considered inferior had dumped him.

 

2018 was so far proving to be quite an interesting year in Dan’s life though. The prefered term was “interesting” and not merely “exciting” because he wasn’t only finding himself constantly in bizarre situations, but there was also a lot of drama behind the scenes.

 

During the Christmas holidays, there had been a magical Staff gathering at the principal’s house. That was the night that changed his life, he went from being a lonely, sad and underpaid Art teacher with no ambitions in life to an energetic, happy dork in love; he was still underpaid but he realized he couldn’t have _everything_.

 

The staff had been eyeing “Darry”, as they called them, like a hawk for weeks before the breakup, if only because to them, “Phan” was the far better match. They suspected the couple had broken up due to Harry being even colder towards Dan than before, but the man had the warmth of a giant iceberg, so they couldn’t be sure. That would change soon.

 

Both Dan and Phil had gotten quite drunk during the party and the rumour mill had gotten even worse when Dan, intoxicated as he was, shouted: “I’m so glad I dumped the asshole” in response to someone asking him about Harry. That night Phil and him danced and did shots together before doing a karaoke rendition of toxic that their pesky coworkers, PJ and Louise, had filmed and later immortalized in the private facebook group run by the vice-principal.

 

After Dan and Phil had left the party together, with the excuse of sharing a taxi, everyone was eager to find any evidence that they were together, not only because they were nosy but because of the damn bet.

 

Betty, the principal’s secretary, had mentioned it during a casual conversation but Dan made the mistake of underestimating the free time of a woman going through the empty nest syndrome accompanied only by her retired husband. She had actually gotten herself a notebook where she kept track of everyone’s date. It wasn’t a matter of whether the staff thought they would end up together, because everyone did. _Everyone_ had bet on yes and had chosen a specific date. Everyone, except Harry. They had obviously decided to keep him out of the loop as nobody actually liked him.

 

Knowing the extent to which their coworkers would go to meddle in their lives, they decided to act exactly the same after the party as they had before. If they acted more distant everyone would assume they had slept together and decided to avoid each other; if they acted in a more friendly manner they would assume they had started dating.

 

The truth was a bit more complicated than that. They _had_ gotten into the same taxi and decided to have a little sleep over. It had been Dan’s idea, he had rested his head on Phil’s shoulder halfway through their car ride and asked Phil if he could stay with him, trying to slur as little as possible. Phil, barely able to make a coherent thought, decided that it was a great idea. Dan was warm and Phil loved warmth.

 

Having reached their destination, they struggled to even get the door open. They started to remove their coats in the entryway and as Dan tripped and pressed Phil against the wall with his entire body, they kissed. They moved to Phil’s bedroom as a swaying mess of limbs knocking over plants and trinkets in their attempt to not break the contact of their lips.

 

\----

 

As Dan opened his eyes he felt comfortable and warm, even though he couldn’t help feeling like something was not entirely right. He felt a hand caressing his lower back. His _naked_ lower back and _cupping_ his naked butt. He jolted awake and found Phil right in front of his face.

 

Phil frowned before opening his eyes and realizing he was in bed with his coworker, naked, and currently grabbing his ass. Blushing madly, they tried to put together what exactly had transpired the night before, but they didn’t get much further than the bedroom door. After that, there were only flashes of naked body parts and tongues.

 

The funniest part of it all was that it had started out as an innocent sleepover but even though Phil had a guest room, they ended up sharing a bed and incurring in various sexual activities, if the bruises and soreness was anything to go by.

 

They decided to go on secret dates and see where this could go. After almost running into the school librarian at a coffee shop, they settled for dinner dates at home.

It had taken off from there; tiny dates turning into more sleepovers and more sex. They cherished every moment of it. Even though they grew more and more confident in their relationship, they still kept quiet about it, if only because Dan really didn’t want to give Harry the satisfaction of being able to say “I knew you were more than friends” - and, of course, to avoid any more drama.

 

A few weeks later they found themselves in a very tricky situation because of it.

 

They had known about the class trip for months, of course, with all the planning it had required, but it had still kind of sneaked up on them, creeping closer and closer until suddenly -

 

Suddenly they were off to London with a bunch of twelve year olds and one room designated for each of them after they had shared a bed every night for weeks. Dan couldn’t even properly remember what it had been like to go to sleep without a Phil engulfing him in a tight embrace, without his hot body pressed right into his. He especially couldn’t remember what it was like waking up to no light kisses pressed into the naked skin of his shoulders.

 

The first night was a literal hell. He couldn’t find sleep, no matter how much he tried. It was only around five am that his eyes finally closed and he was able to get some sleep.

 

Unfortunately, his alarm went off not even two hours later, leaving him with a headache and the dreading feeling that the next night would probably be worse.

 

The dark circles he sported under his eyes were even more prominent than usual, his eyes were red-rimmed and sunken from the utter lack of sleep. Phil didn’t look much better, he just was slightly better at hiding it, his glasses covering most of the bags under his eyes. Louise, who had joined them on the trip, eyed them suspiciously when first Phil and then Dan trotted into the breakfast room looking dead on their feet.

 

Dan tried to hide his surprise when he first laid eyes on his boyfriend that morning. He really hadn’t expected the sleep deprivation to have such an immediate effect on both of them, especially considering how little they slept on normal nights anyways, but somehow this had taken a bigger toll on them than anticipated.

 

He could still hear Phil’s voice in the back of his mind. _“It’s just for a few nights, Dan, we’re gonna be fine,”_ he had said in this tranquil, deep voice he used when he needed to calm him down while Dan stressed over his life choices.

 

Naturally, Dan muttered a somewhat sharp “Who’s gonna be fine?” into Phil’s ear when he sat down beside him. He deserved it. Dan had literally called this - even if the intensity was surprising even to himself.

 

“Don’t act like you don’t feel like shit yourself”, Phil shot back. Dan shrugged helplessly in response. _‘Fair enough’,_ he thought. Just one look into the mirror across him was enough to make his headache even worse.

 

_‘God, Louise will be a fucking nuisance about it, won’t she?’_

 

Unfortunately for them, Dan’s suspicion would prove to be right.

 

“What has your knickers in a twist?” she asked when both had settled down at the table with some breakfast from the buffet. Thankfully. she had gathered the students on her own and brought them down; they were already scattered around the dining room, chatting idly among themselves.

 

“Did our students keep you guys up? Because I couldn’t hear anything from my end”, she probed when she didn’t receive an answer to her first question. She had the room on the other side of the floor in contrast to Dan and Phil, who had their rooms fairly close to each other. Suspicion was clearly written all over her face.

 

Dan and Phil shared a look, unsure of what to say, before concluding that blaming the students was just morally wrong. “No, they were fairly quiet the whole night,” Dan assured her while nibbling on a piece of bread.

 

His stomach felt twisted in knots; even the thought of food made it churn. He groaned quietly; he was well aware that he was behaving like a teenager but he really couldn’t do anything about it. He missed Phil, even though he was seated right next to him.

 

They desperately needed some alone time, they hadn’t kissed in over 24 hours. Dan was definitely not okay with that.

 

Louise kept probing them for answers neither of them was ready to give so they settled for changing the topic. Neither Dan nor Phil felt the need to explain themselves.

 

Their headaches got even worse throughout the day. After Dinner, when the students and Louise had gone to bed, they managed to sneak a few precious moments together. They only shared a few kisses and a short make-out session, but it left them both even more exhausted than before.

 

The next morning wasn’t any better. Quite the opposite, actually: It was worse.

 

Far worse.

 

Not even the glasses did anything to conceal the dark shadows under Phil’s eyes when he went to wake up the students. His head pounded like a bad rock band was giving a concert inside of it.

 

He needed Dan and he needed him right now.

 

It was just their luck that Louise would stumble into Dan’s room just as they leaned in for a quick kiss. For a second, she didn’t say anything, just blinked in shock before she started cursing like a sailor. “How long has this been going on?”, she demanded. Both Dan and Phil were speechless for a second.

 

“Uhm-”

 

“And please don’t say Christmas because that’s Mark’s bet and he doesn’t deserve to win -” She rambled on for a bit while Dan and Phil shared silent glances, both at a loss of what to say, until - “So, I’ll cover for you guys if you promise to keep it down for two more weeks. I deserve to win, are we clear?!”

 

The boys just stared at her for a second, dumbfounded, before they finally processed their co-worker’s proposal and nodded their head in approval.

 

Needless to say, Dan enjoyed all the self-induced sleepless nights with Phil that followed.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr: [Succubusphan](http://Succubusphan.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Follow Julia on Tumblr: [Shippingfangirl26](http://shippingfangirl26.tumblr.com/)
> 
> In case you wish to reblog the fic: [Tumblr Link](https://succubusphan.tumblr.com/post/176427388151/show-me-the-meaning-of-being-lonely/)
> 
> Comments and Kudos are appreciated!!!! Please let us know what you think of our fic! I'm trying to convince my friend to start posting her own work but for now she only does collabs.


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